At Long Last – Gotcha, Osama Bin Laden!

The killing of Osama bin Laden is our greatest victory so far in the war on terror.

That war has spanned six presidencies going all the way back to the taking of hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran during the Carter Administration.

Yesterday’s mission will become textbook material for the American military and intelligence services showcasing urban warfare tactics against 21st century terrorist enemies. It has taken decades of determined, thankless efforts and learning from past failures, but that effort has finally paid off.

A Litany of Failure

It wasn’t called the war on terror back then, but our first defeat in a long series of defeats and frustrated efforts against it was on April 24, 1980.

In a very similar mission to yesterday’s that took out bin Laden, “Operation Eagle Claw” – the attempted rescue of 52 American hostages held in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran – was called off after two aircraft collided, killing 8 brave American servicemen.

Other Setbacks

The litany of setbacks and failures in the war on terror is long:

The bombing of the American military barracks in Beirut killing 299 American and French servicemen in 1983

The simultaneous American embassy attacks in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania killing 224 and injuring 4,500 in 1998

The attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in 2000

The 9/11/2001 attacks that killed 2,973 Americans, most of them civilians

Innumerable other embassy, compound and civilian attacks

Other Attempts To Get bin Laden

President Bill Clinton was the first to order an attack aimed at killing Osama bin Laden on 8/20/1998 in response to the Embassy attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

66 cruise missiles were fired by US Navy ships from the Arabian sea and rained down on his compound in Khost, Afghanistan narrowly missing bin Laden who fortuitously left shortly before the attack.

In search of Osama bin Laden, President George W. Bush attacked and overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Bin Laden was tracked to the mountainous Tora Bora area on the Afghan-Pakistani border. After a three day bombing campaign bin Laden escaped into Pakistan.

The Final Chapter

A extraordinarily difficult and perilous mission, long in the planning stages and well practiced, was ordered operational by President Obama. The combined efforts of an elite counter-terrorism military force of Navy seals supported by flawless intelligence gathering and clandestine operations resulted in the killing of the world’s #1 terrorist

Last night, it was as if the nation erupted into spontaneous jubilation to express a huge sense of collective relief over the death of Osama bin Laden.

We got a big chief among the bad guys and finally exacted our pound of flesh from the enemy responsible for the deaths of so many innocent Americans on 9/11, and so many others.

This does not end the pain and suffering of those who lost loved ones and friends on 9/11. That will never go away.

But we leave this certain promise to all who dare attack us…

Let our enemies far and wide know that when you harm the United States, no matter where you go, no matter where you hide, no matter what you do, you be will relentless pursued to the ends of the earth until we finally get you.